Stuffed animals not yet ruined by the elements surround the plastic gravesite marker for Ezekiel Stephan; as well, the words “Zeke” and “miss you sunshine,” written in black marker, look brand new.

The grave at the Town of Cardston cemetery isn’t found in the section known as Babyland, even though Ezekiel was just shy of 19 months old when he died March 18, 2012. Instead, it is part of his grandmother’s gravesite, a woman who died more than two decades earlier.

Ezekiel Stephan and Deborah Cornellia Starr never met, but today their life and death stories are woven together in a narrative both tragic and bizarre, known across this country and around the world.

On Tuesday afternoon, the child’s parents, Collet and Stephan, heard the verdicts that they and their contingent of supporters prayed wouldn’t come: guilty for both, on the charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Their convictions — which could result in jail time of up to five years and possibly the loss of custody of their other three sons — stem from Ezekiel’s death four years ago. The toddler died after succumbing to what a pathologist testified was a combination of bacterial meningitis and a lung infection.

The Crown contended that the child’s death occurred after he suffered from deteriorating health for more than two weeks; despite this, they say his parents chose herbal remedies and other naturopathic treatments, ignoring a nurse’s advice to take him to a doctor.

Starr, Ezekiel’s paternal grandmother, died by suicide in 1994, at the age of 40. Her husband, Anthony, would later retell her story countless times, after co-founding Truehope Nutritional Support Ltd.

Truehope’s micronutrient products include one that Anthony Stephan has long claimed can effectively treat mental-health conditions like the one his wife suffered from, bipolar disorder.

Both before and after the trial, David Stephan has maintained that their prosecution has been because his father’s company earlier fought a long battle, and won, against Health Canada to sell his products; he also accused the government of singling out him and his wife for punishment because of their decision to not vaccinate their children.

While the couple didn’t talk as they left court after the verdict, by the next morning they were once again fighting back, on social media and in an interview with Canadian Press. The accusations now expanded to the media being part of the federal government/police/Alberta Health Services collusion.

That new addition, came about due to a miscommunication between Danielle Smith, host of NewsTalk 770’s afternoon show, and her technician, explained producer John Voss. Smith announced on her show that the pair had been convicted several minutes before the verdict was announced in court.

“We corrected it within five minutes and corrected it again,” Voss says of the error. “We have been trying to disabuse people there has been some conspiracy.”

Try telling that to folks in the small village of Glenwood, not far from the acreage the Stephans called home until moving to British Columbia.

By the time I arrive Wednesday afternoon, they’ve all heard it — and are talking about this new layer to the collusion charge.

“This has had a lot to do with Truehope,” says Jolane Shipley as she greets customers at Van Dan’s grocer on Glenwood’s main street. “They fought the government and won, and now they’re being punished for it.”

Like so many others — as we talk, Shipley points to a Truehope display in the store — the 67-year-old has heard most of the evidence and still stands by the convicted parents. “They went to our church,” says Shipley, a Mormon. “This is very, very disappointing.”

Larry Spackman acknowledges that confusion caused by the Stephans’ beliefs and his church’s stance are one more part of the fallout from the case.

“We are definitely part of the mainline science,” says Spackman, an elder with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Calgary region, reiterating his church’s official policy. “We have donated millions for vaccination programs in Third World countries. But our hearts do go out to the family.”

This highly emotional trial and its twists and turns has been exhausting merely to observe, thanks not only to daily reminders of the death of a little boy, but also because of its power to polarize those holding various points of view.

By late Wednesday, it’s clear that the tragic case will continue to upset, and polarize, people for some time to come — thanks partly to the tenacity of David Stephan, who on Wednesday wrote on his Facebook page: “We are far from being done with this.”

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